Ilgilletter 93024--O24-O May I995 V01
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P.O. Box 24-0 Ojai, Calif. ilgilletter 93024--O24-O May I995 V01. 14 Na 5 , I three voices laughing and talking: Gerry Mulligan, Jobim, and me. Um Abrago No Tom I remembered an evening in my apartment, just afier I had written Part Three that lyric. Jobim was demonstrating the song for Gerry. Having no rhythm section, no need to stay out of its way,‘ he was using the For all that he was revered in Brazil, Jobim was criticized there, full resources of the keyboard. And he was a formidable pianist. and he was not averse to criticizing back. Interviewing him in Brazil in 1990 for the introduction of the “Some Brazilians,” one journalist wrote, “never forgave Jobim I990 Ibm Jobim Songbook, Almir Chediak, its editor and compil- for being so extraordinarily successful. He has been described as er, reminded him that Villa-Lobos had been severely criticized in someone who sold his soul to the United States.” Brazil. ‘I sometimes think those who most criticize a country are those “He sure was,” Jobim responded. “His choices got pretty o love it most, not the conspicuous posturing patriots. Those limited: either change his profession, shoot himself, or do what he who truly love a country call on it to adhere to its highest ideals did. Forttmately, he chose the best alternative: he faced up to all and aspire to even higher. And Jobim said, “I’ve never seen a more those people who had absolutely no understanding of what he was corrupt, more bureaucratic coimtry than ours.” I daresay that cost doing . In defense, he put on vainglory, saying, FI’m a genius,’ him a few friends. And he said, “We have this misery mania. and that was all. He just pretended to be vain. Eventually he had“ Brazil cannot see anything that works. Brazil loves Garrincha (a to leave Brazil. And if he hadn’t lefi, I doubt whether he’d have noted soccer player) but it needs to learn to love Pele. He was a reached the point ofachieving world renown as a composer, which success and Garrincha died a pauper.” (Jobim was a soccer fan.) he quite deserves.” The remark was no doubt in response to the resentment of his Chediak said, “You too.” success. But this attitude is endmic in the North American jazz “Maybe so,” Jobim said. “If I’d stayed in Brazil, I wouldn’t world where success is seen as evidence of mediocrity, while have made it past the comer bar, where I’d be sitting around failure, a miserable life, alcoholism,- or an early drug death drinking beer . In the Northem Hemisphere, people take things powera certain kind of critic to bestow an essentially conde- more seriously. Up there it’s cold and people stay indoors, all scending praise. Cannonball Adderley, Dave Brubeck, and even bundled up. Without anything else to do, they write or compose. Miles Davis have known the sting of this; And that’s why all the great works were created in the Jobim said, “I’m not the one who badmouths Brazil. Brazil Hemisphere. In the tropics, the heat generates a search for water.” badmouths Brazil.” But Jobim did not know Canada, where the same qualities he He had even undergone criticism for his music itself, as superb describes in Brazil are to be found. The Canadians tend not ‘lit is. He said, “The more my music is Brazilian, the more they recognize the Canadian artist tmtil he or she has received the l me Americanized.” endorsement ofthe I am convinced that had Jobim not And he said, “I’ve dedicated my life to Brazilian music, been a major star in the United -States, he wouldn’t have been one because you already have the French to write French music and in Brazil either: But the very need that Canadians and apparently Americans to write American music.” For myself, I found his Brazilians havefor this American endorsement produces a covert music becoming more deeply Brazilian as he grew older and resentment ofthe United States. To succeed in New York City, and explored a broad range of the musical materials of his country. by extension Hollywood, is to succeed in the world, and everyone He said, “The praise comes from the people, the roguery from knows it. In 1953, when the couturiere Coco Chanel came out of the intelligentsia” an eight-year retirement, the French critics destroyed her. Then her There is one point about Jobim’s work that I would like to clear work was praised in Womens Wear Daily, Americans went wild up. Afier his death, I read a Brazilian piece about him that, for all about it, and then the French took her to their bosom. the admiration in its tone, said that he wasn’t much of a pianist or So this phenomenon is not limited to Brazil, nor for that is it a singer. He indeed wasn’t much of a singer, but he was a very new. Otherwise you would not find in Matthew 13:32 the sarcastic fine pianist whose simplicity on records was deceptive. Listen to (and usually misquoted) observation: “The prophet is not without his performance on electric piano of Ary Barroso’s Brazil on the honor, save in his own country, and in his own house.” Stone Flower album. Andthere are some very good examples of There is no question in my mind that Jobim was a Brazilian his piano on the Wave album. ~ nationalist. But he was more than that, and of all the thingsvhe But I have another reason to be aware of the scope of his said, one remains particularly vibrant in my mind. It was a playing. One day, looking for a cassette on which to record rejection ofjingoism, of nationalism, of racism, of parochialism. something, I was playing some that were without labels. I heard a It seemed to echo something Jesus said (John 8:58), speaking of pianist playing Someone to Light Up My Life. He was playing it his spiritual unity with the world: “Before Abraham was, I am.” beautifully, a little like Bill Evans and with plenty of technique. I Jobim said to me, and he said it in English, “I am prior to could not decide who it was, until the ending, when I recognized borders.” Jobim suffered from bladder cancer. In November of 1994, he flew equally ubiquitous grinning Mexican bandit (even to the Frito to New York to undergo treatment at Mount Sinai Medical Center. bandido of later television notoriety), the sundry slick Latin Lover He returned to Brazil, telling reporters there that he had undergone types from various coimtries, and other ethnic stereotypes. To an angioplasty. His heart condition had been discovered during the dominate and ifnecessary exterminate a people requires their prior cancer examination. None of this surprised his doctors, who for demonization or at least debasement, and the portrayal of Latin years had been warning him about his eating and drinking habits. Americans during that period is ahnost as ghastly as the Mantan Gerry Mulligan, who had seen him in Rio a few months earlier, Moreland-Steppin Fetchit movie images of blacks. Carmen said on returning fiom Brazil that Jobim’s weight worried him. Miranda was used to such ends, whether consciously by studio Jobim had been trying to cut back on his alcohol intake, but heads and directors or out of a universal ignorance ofthe nature of some of his friends said he had to have a little Sco-watch at least Latin America and its nations, so diverse and different. once a day. It was even done in music. Frank Sinatra, during his days at the He retumed to Mount Sinai, where he underwent surgery. He Columbia label, had a record called The Cofiee Song that contained died Thursday, December 8, in the same hospital in which Bill such lines as “’way down among Brazilians, coffee beans grow by Evans had died fourteen years earlier. 0 Globo, the large Rio the billions, and they’ve got to find those extra cups to daily, ran a headline saying that he might have died of medical They’ve got an awfiil lot of coffee in Brazil . A politici error. His son Paulo, now forty-four, denied this. He said the daughter was accused of drinking water and was fined a great big family knew his heart might not stand up to the operation: he had fifiy-dollar bill. They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil.” been suffering from atherosclerosis for at least twenty years. (And if she had paid a fine, it would have been in cruzeiros, not His body arrived at the International Airport of Galeao at 10:15 dollars.) am. the next day, Friday. A spontaneous demonstration material- Yet another song, called The Best President We Ever Had, ized. A firetruck carried his cotfm, covered with a Brazilian flag, similarly patronized Spanish-speaking Latins, with its line, “We’re through the city. This developed into a parade that lasted four awfully sorry we shot him.” All of Latin America put together hours as Cariocas poured into the streets to bid him farewell. Some does not have a record of presidential assassinations and attempted sang his songs, some stood in silence. The truck passed in front of assassinations equal to that of the United States. Churrascaria Plataforma, a restaurant he particularly liked. Its Carmen Miranda was, in her Hollywood years, a victim of this waitersvand clients stood outside, some of them in tears. Its owner instutionalized condescension. was already considering putting a plaque, perhaps bronze, on But I must say that her fruity hats led to what at first I thought Jobim’s favorite table.